


Rekindled

by raftel



Category: One Piece
Genre: ASL Brothers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-16 01:38:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8081623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raftel/pseuds/raftel
Summary: Sabo and Dadan's first meeting after Ace's death.17/11/2017: Revamped. Previously titled The fire in their souls.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been having a hard time getting myself back into posting on ao3; and what better way to do that than to get stuck in the vicious rewriting cycle.

Two wooden huts took him by surprise. One was made much better than the other; as well as little hands and a clingy younger brother would allow, at least.

 _Ace’s country_

The other sat sheltered, between Ace’s and a bigger house. _Luffy’s country, _it read, with messy handwriting against planks hanging loose.__

__He felt the knot in his stomach forming again._ _

__Years’ worth of dread settled at his feet, cold and reluctant despite the legacy he carried, when he stood before the door. A rush of excitement pushed him forth, as did a familiar palm when he disembarked, and he raised a hand to the wooden door._ _

__Then the flame died, and regret settled back down in ashes._ _

__“I’m here to see Dadan.” The croak he made was no voice of his, unfit for command or confession._ _

__Behind the small, unknown figure that stood at the door was a _home_. Of mountain bandits, yes, but he felt its warmth; reminiscent and smelling of booze and bear stew._ _

And despite the remorse, a smile found its way onto his lips when he heard _Boss_ being called. Too masculine a term for the closest thing he’d ever had to a mother, but fitting well still. A distant memory of her tumbled along; rough voice and trained fists and reassuring footsteps. Then the door opened again. 

__And her face carried more expressions in the few seconds where the air around them sat still than it had during the months he’d spent under her care. Her eyes widened and the eyebrows he’d always seen drawn together in a deep frown shot upwards. He could no longer hear the rowdy bandits preparing their feasts and slamming their glasses._ _

But in the lines of her face he found his past again, in the grief she showed he found the lost laugh of a brother gone. It was a disorienting thing, how much she’d aged. Years and sorrow weighed her down, into a smaller woman than the one he’d remembered. And when his _“I’m home”_ was forcefully muffled in her embrace, he felt it in his bones, his worth. 

__She welcomed him back with a sharp sob that dragged the henchmen from their kitchens and their common rooms. And from them, he heard enough about rising from the dead to last him several lifetimes._ _

__For the first time in his life, Sabo felt like a son who’d been gone for too long._ _

__A soaking handkerchief waved about carried her too-severe words kicking her bandits out. But her tiny promise resided still; “You can have him once I’m done talking.”_ _

__They left, and the quiet settled in. For a few seconds, not enough for him to gather his fear, she let it._ _

__“I thought I’d lost two sons.”_ _

__There was nothing he could say to that, but he wished there was. He needed to _talk_ , to fill the silence in before everything crashed down again. A familiar, blunt pain nudged him between the lungs. _ _

__Then, “Have you seen Luffy yet?” Dadan asked, and the heart hadn’t sat in its place for two years settled in a little easier._ _

__He let out a small laugh, trying to ease the sob that threatened. “Ace’s lessons did him little good.”_ _

__“He would’ve cried too, you know.” Dadan sighed a little chuckle of her own._ _

__He needed it, as regretful as it was, a conversation with someone who’d seen his brother grow; who’d known the weaknesses he’d hidden from a little brother. He did talk to Luffy, but there was only so much he could draw out of him, who’d felt that strong heart quiet down and stop._ _

__She went on, with things that sounded unbearably like his brothers, the fondness in her voice a stark contradiction to the harsh words she chose. But maybe they were damn brats, the three of them, wreaking havoc and hunting crocodiles. And when she described the day they thought Sabo died, hesitation forced even sharper choices, her intent to keep her sorrow to herself as clear as Ace’s._ _

__And he couldn’t help but laugh, small, occasional sounds, at how insufferable his brother was. It was the tree that held him back from seeking vengeance. He only grew more stubborn, and more careful about Luffy. They could see Roger in him sometimes, but only those who’d known them both._ _

__But he’d mourned too. Secretly, and probably while looking at the sea. The ache resurfaced with the consideration of a grieving child, too hard on himself until the very end._ _

__“Are you not going to ask why I hadn’t gone to help?”_ _

__The expression she gave him was an odd combination of genuine confusion and a knowing look. Then, after a lull, “Why would I?” she quietly responded. “You couldn’t.” What her face wore eased into softer lines and a gentler grief, not the hard blame that she’d earlier spoken of Garp. Ace had given him hell, and the old bastard deserved ten-folds that, she’d said, for shoving Ace into her life and then quietly watching as he got dragged out of his own._ _

__That night was brought back to him, forgotten years pulling him down to his knees and years lost crumbling from above. Nothing else mattered, it was all past and sorrow and an unyielding fever that pressed him down for days, not sparing him the cruelty of its delusions._ _

“Amnesia,” he confessed. “I lost all my memories of them.” The pain of it remained, the _guilt_ that even Koala’s reassurance couldn’t dissolve. Then he called out her name, and “What would’ve happened if I didn't set sail that day. How many years would we have spent growing up together?” 

__Sabo thought back to the newspaper article. His only perception of a grown Ace was printed with the news of his death, a regret in and of itself. But she’d described him to Sabo earlier. Ace grew, a known presence and bustling laughter, muscles and sharp features, but never out of his freckles._ _

__And on his arm, he’d inked a tribute to Sabo._ _

__He’d seen it, bloodied and worn under Luffy’s fingers. But when she said it, it became easier to accept, the permanent reminder that Ace had passed before Sabo could remember him._ _

__But her face bore no anger to his earlier question, no blame. Just sorrow for a few seconds, so deep it almost consumed him, then contentment. “Listen here,” she said, the firmness of her voice pulling him back. “Ace was not one to sit and watch you mope around. If he’d done that himself, -if they’d both done that, they wouldn’t have lived the lives they wanted.”_ _

His eyes stung. Ace _lived_ and was loved back, and Sabo’s heart constricted in a prayer, that the questions that saw Ace sitting on a branch through the night had all been answered. His part, he mused, he’d fulfill by living his life to the fullest for them both, for the legacy he inherited. 

__“Thank you, Dadan.”_ _

__Then, “By the way,” he continued. “You wouldn't have any planks lying around, would you?”_ _

__“I think there are some at the back,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at the back door. “Why would you need them?”_ _

__“I’m going to build a hut,” he said, his heart swelling with happiness._ _


End file.
